Author: Tumanian Talar

PRESIDENT OF CROATIA CONGRATULATES SERGE SARGSYAN

armradio.am
21.03.2008 12:17

The President of the Republic of Croatia Stjepan MesiÄ~G congratulated
RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan on his victory in the presidential
elections.

The message says, in part:

"Dear President-elect, On behalf of the citizens of the Republic of
Croatia and myself, let me congratulate you on the occasion of being
elected to the post of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

Your rich political experience is a guarantee that Armenia has got a
President who will best lead the country in the complex international
situation on the world arena.

I wish you success in your position, and let me use the opportunity to
express confidence that the relations between the Republic of Armenia
and the Republic of Croatia will continue developing in the future."

–Boundary_(ID_JWeIwUPaemrjQaFbK+3h EQ)–

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
March 20, 2008
Contact: Ani Garabedian

Western Region Activists Take Anti-Genocide Message to Capitol Hill

Washington D.C. – Armenian National Committee – Western Region
(ANC-WR) activists, from all over Western United States, gathered in
Washington D.C. from March 12-14 to take part in the second annual
Capitol Hill advocacy campaign organized by the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) and Genocide Intervention Network
(GI-Net).

The event, titled "End the Cycle of Genocide: Grassroots Capitol
Campaign," took place over the course of three days and drew
constituents from California, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona as well as Texas
who, along with their counterparts from the Eastern United States held
over 100 meetings and relayed information to all Senate and House
offices regarding the Armenian Genocide and key Darfur legislation.
Students and professionals helped raise awareness regarding the real
world dangers resulting from Armenian Genocide denial particularly as
it relates to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

"It was an amazing experience and I look forward to Texahyes
continuing their regular participation in these advocacy days," said
Nathalie Kolandjian, a student at the University of Texas, Austin.
"These issues are very important to us and it is crucial to remind our
representatives that there is an active Armenian American community
back home that cares," she added.

Advocacy week participants also took the opportunity to explore the
Capitol and many of its historical attractions including the White
House, Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument.

"Our participation during this week of advocacy has given members of
our community an insight into the Washington, D.C. political
environment," noted Armen Donigian a participant San Diego, CA. "This
was a positive step in growing the relationship between San Diego
Armenian Americans and their local Congressional district offices," he
added.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in
the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States
and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR advances
the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

###

Photo caption #1: (center) Congressman John Culberson (R-TX-07)
joined by (from left to right) ANC San Gabriel Valley Member Jack
Hadjinian, ANC Texas Activist and Constituent Nathalie Kolandjian and
Genocide Intervention Network Activist Colin Christensen.

Photo caption #2: Genocide prevention activists work together at the
ANCA office in Washington, D.C. preparing informational materials for
Members of Congress.

KAZAKHSTAN SUPPORTS FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

armradio.am
18.03.2008 16:46

Kazakhstan supports friendly relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia,
Serik Primbetov, the newly appointed Ambassador of Kazakhstan
to Azerbaijan, stated commenting on Kazakhstan’s position, which
abstained from voting on the UN General Assembly Resolution on "The
State in the Azerbaijani Occupied Territories."

"I don’t think the relations between our countries can be restricted to
this resolution. We have always stood for the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan and peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict,"
the Ambassador of Kazakhstan said.

A THANKFUL TANKIAN DONS MANY MASKS IN ACTION-PACKED HOUR; BUT FANS EXPECTING A MEDLEY OF SYSTEM HITS CAME UP EMPTY
by Sandra Sperounes

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
March 18, 2008 Tuesday

SERJ TANKIAN
With: Fair to Midland
When: Sunday
Where: Shaw Conference Centre

EDMONTON – Serj Tankian is a man of many guises — ranging from a
short-haired Frank Zappa to a long-locked Rasputin.

The System of a Down frontman unveiled his latest — a vaudeville
barker — during Sunday’s stop at the Shaw Conference Centre.

Clad in a white suit and hat, Tankian brought to life one of the
characters from his solo debut, Elect the Dead, a bombastic reflection
of religion, politics, capitalism and sex.

He kicked his legs, repeatedly lifted his hat, dropped to his knees,
waved his hands, and twirled around like a manic Groucho Marx —
desperately trying to keep pace with the dizzying barrage of metal
riffs, piano melodies and Armenian folk rhythms propelling such
songs as Empty Walls, Sky Is Over and Praise the Lord and Pass the
Ammunition. Whew.

It’s no wonder Tankian’s set only lasted 60 minutes; he was probably
exhausted by the halfway point.

Not to mention the fact he only has one album to his name — and while
most of Sunday’s 3,000-plus fans were eagerly waiting for a medley of
System of a Down songs, Tankian didn’t bother to acknowledge any of
the band’s biggest hits. (He did, however, play a ferocious cover of
an ’80s punk classic, Holiday In Cambodia, by the Dead Kennedys. O,
Jello Biafra, where are you?)

His System snub is somewhat understandable, but might not bode well
for the future of the band.

Tankian is proud of his record, and based on Sunday’s performance,
he feels liberated. He was much more animated — and personable —
with his new band, The FCC, than with his SOAD bandmates.

He also seemed to possess an even greater range of voices — from an
evil opera singer to a Prince-like falsetto to the aforementioned
vaudeville barker, which he used to comedic effect on Lie Lie Lie,
one of the highlights of Elect the Dead and his set at the Shaw.

Tankian followed with one of a few slow-ish numbers, Saving Us, which
also features some of his more uncharacteristically romantic lyrics.

"I love you baby more and more / We need to laugh and sing and warm
each other’s hearts tonight," he crooned.

By the end of the show, his fans were suitably warmed — and so was
was Tankian.

"This is the best crowd we’ve had on the tour," he yelled.

"Seriously." And that’s no lie.

WHY ALAIN DELETROZ DESCRIBED SERGE SARGSYAN AS A WISE POLITICIAN

KarabakhOpen
17-03-2008 16:21:55

The settlement of conflicts, including the Karabakh conflict, is
gradually shifted to the level of "recognize – not recognize". In
speaking about one unrecognized state or another they no longer discuss
legal, historical, let alone moral and other aspects. There is real
politics – definite interests, levers and steps. Unfortunately,
the Armenian diplomacy sets forward diplomatic imitation to real
politics. And the result is obvious – over the past few days a number
of representatives of influential structures have made it clear
that nobody is going to recognize the independence of NKR. When a
country declares independence, its legal status is not changed by
the declaration but the number of countries which recognize it and
accept the new states into international organizations, said the
president of the International Crisis Group Alain Deletroz. He said
he does not see a significant bloc other than the European Union
ready to recognize the independence of one region or another and
provide significant human and financial resources to help the new
state survive and prosper. He said among the first statements on the
recognition of the declaration of independence of Kosovo one amazed him
with its wisdom. The new president of Armenia Serge Sargsyan, instead
of using the event which will probably be used by part of political
forces of the country, analyzed with dignity and restraint the real
significance of the precedent of Kosovo for the South Caucasus. The
declaration of independence of Kosovo is not a precedent, but at the
same time Kosovo is a positive signal for protection of human rights
of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, he quoted Serge Sargsyan,
noting that it is the case when the French say the church is returned
to the center of the town.

The deputy assistant to the U.S. State Secretary, the co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza was more precise. He said the OSCE Minsk
Group proposals should lead to the return of territories to Azerbaijan,
the return of refugees, include a corridor connecting Karabakh and
Armenia and the deployment of international peacekeepers. According to
Matthew Bryza, the Minsk Group has never worked so intensively to work
out a definite proposal, and in this connection this program differs
from what had been proposed earlier, therefore there is no reason
to compare the programs which were under Levon Ter-Petrosyan and
Robert Kocharyan or Heydar Aliyev. He said now there are completely
new proposals to underlie the peace agreement favoring prosperity in
the region. In this connection, he said they support the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and think the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is
an object of talks.

But even this goal scored to Armenians did not satisfy Azerbaijan. Baku
will reconsider its relations with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
regarding the Karabakh settlement, the deputy minister of foreign
affairs of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov said angrily, commenting on the
result of vote to the resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh at the UN. He
said he was perplexed by the OSCE Minsk Group countries which voted
against the resolution.

The statement of the co-chairs that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh
can be determined through talks is basically erratic, said the deputy
foreign minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov in a briefing. The issue
of the status can be determined only on the basis of the legislation
of Azerbaijan and through agreement between the communities of the
country, he said. The status is not an object of discussion with
Armenia. Besides, the status is not the goal of the OSCE Minsk Group,
he said.

What else is awaiting Karabakh? The geopolitical situation is becoming
tougher, the threats of Azerbaijan to resolve the issue through a real
way are becoming more frequent. In fact, Armenia has no government,
and the internal situation is highly tense. The minister of foreign
affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan has already stated that he will
resign because he will hardly assume responsibility for further
steps. And recently the president of Karabakh has met with the staff
of the NKR foreign ministry and proposed priorities for the ministry.

PRESS-SECRETARY OF ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: RESTRICTIONS ON MEDIA’S ACTIVITY IN ARMENIA ARE TEMPORARY

arminfo
2008-03-17 16:49:00

ArmInfo. The restrictions on media’s activity in Armenia are temporary
and they are connected with the state of emergency imposed. These
restrictions will be lifted in several days, Press- secretary of the
Armenian President Viktor Soghomonyan said at a briefing, Monday.

He said that the March 1 presidential decree on imposing a state of
emergency and the March 13 presidential decree distinctly point out
inadmissibility of "provocative and invariably false information".

"Zhamanak Yerevan newspaper says that the authorities conceal
dozens of victims during the March 1 events and these events were
deliberately provoked by the authorities, etc. Hayk newspaper
says that the detainees are beaten at the police station during
investigation", he said. "The fact that Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper
prints an interview with its Editor-in-Chief Nikol Pashinyan, who is
wanted on the suspicion of felonies, is inadmissible. Nevertheless, the
representatives of RA National Security Service suggested excluding the
specified and similar materials, and the publication of the newspapers,
which have not been published since March 3, will be allowed. But
they refused and the reason is clear – in order to give a chance to
some international organizations to make statements on restriction
of freedom of speech, censorship, etc.", he added.

Soghomonyan said that the recent events subjected the information field
of the country to serious checking. Armenia’s information field has
never found itself in such critical situations before. The society
saw what serious role publication of invariably false information
in the press may have. In particular, the press- secretary touched
upon "the hundreds of thousands of participants in the rallies,
etc.". "The fact that Radio Liberty has deliberately distorted the
interview with Head of the OSCE Observation Mission Geert Ahrens
raises a lot of questions", Soghomonyan said.

He added that the society’s opinion that the authorities have blocked
some internet issues since the state of emergency was imposed is
also false.

"This is impossible even technically", the press-secretary noted.

Agence France Presse
March 13, 2008 Thursday

Armenia lifts emergency media restrictions

YEREVAN

Ex-Soviet Armenia on Thursday lifted some media restrictions imposed
under a state of emergency earlier this month but continued a ban on
public protests.

President Robert Kocharian signed a decree lifting an order on the
media to only broadcast or publish information from official sources
as of Friday, the presidential administration said in a statement.

But he left in force a measure banning the publication of "obviously
false information about the government and internal political
questions or information that will destabilise the situation."

A ban on public demonstrations also remained in place.

The 20-day state of emergency was declared on March 1 after eight
people died in street battles between riot police and opposition
supporters in the capital Yerevan. The violence also injured dozens,
many from gunshot wounds.

Police arrested more than 50 people in connection with the unrest,
which broke out after riot police moved to disperse opposition
protesters who had rallied for 11 days against the result of a
presidential election officially won by Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian.

Opposition supporters claim the election was rigged to ensure
Sarkisian’s victory over former president Levon Ter-Petrosian, though
foreign observers said the vote was mostly in line with international
standards.

The mountainous country of about three million people — wedged
between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey — has seen repeated
political violence and post-election protests since gaining its
independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 15 2008

Turkish president: Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh
territory is still under occupation

[ 15 Mar 2008 13:09 ]

Ankara – APA. `Turkey is concerned about the current state of Nagorno
Karabakh conflict and wishes the problem to be solved in a short
period of time,’ President of Turkey Abdullah Gul said in an
interview to the Director General of ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman.

He expressed his regret that that the conflict remained frozen.
"Nagorno Karabakh is still under occupation. Millions of our
Azerbaijani brothers have been displaced as a result of the conflict
and live in bad conditions. We wish the problem between Azerbaijan
and Armenia to be solved through understanding and dialogue.
Everybody is engaged in the settlement of Cyprus problem, while no
one concerns himself with Nagorno Karabakh. We regret it,’ the
president said.

Edmonton Journal, Canada –
March 15 2008

Musical Serj against war machine

Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 6:59 am
SERJ TANKIAN

With: Fair to Midland
When: Sunday night at 8

EDMONTON – Artists are often the last to learn about some of the
smaller, but not less important, details of their careers.

Until a few days ago, Serj Tankian didn’t even know Sunday’s show was
moved to a larger venue — from the Edmonton Event Centre to the Shaw
Conference Centre — due to an overwhelming demand for tickets.

"Really? That’s great. Wow. Awesome. Thanks for telling me. I wish my
agent would tell me these things," he jokes, chuckling as softly as a
shy cat.

Onstage or in the recording studio, he turns into another beast.

Whether on his own or fronting the Armenian-American ambassadors of
theatrical metal, System of a Down, his vocal acrobatics are as
powerful as the first four letters of his last name — perhaps an
inappropriate metaphor, considering his staunch antiwar views.

Tankian’s non-profit organization, Axis of Justice, repeatedly
denounces the war in Iraq. He lobbies American politicians to
officially recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915, which killed an
estimated 1.5 million citizens.

His solo debut, Elect the Dead, is littered with images of burning
bodies, vanishing hereditary lines, dead farms, oil brigades and the
damning prayer: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." One of
those songs, Empty Walls, appears on the soundtrack to Body of War, a
documentary about a U.S. soldier wounded in Iraq.

"I think it’s important for people to be involved with things that
are above and beyond themselves and their own interests," says
Tankian of his political activism.

"We’re here for more than one purpose. Whether you do it through a
non-profit organization, whether you do it with just friends or by
yourself, volunteering for things, I think we’re meant to work
collectively to achieve certain goals."

Which means he’s not content to simply rage against the machine; he
also offers solutions. His latest venture, electthedead.com, provides
suggestions to reform U.S. politics, including abolishing the
convoluted concept of the electoral college, which requires more than
a four-year degree to figure out.

Yet even with America’s perplexing voting system, Tankian admits he’s
encouraged, albeit cautiously, by the upcoming presidential election.

"It’s a shake-up," he says. "It’s cool, but we’re behind the times.
Are we complimenting ourselves for being 50 years late? So, it’s
kinda funny for me, but I think it’s definitely interesting. We went
into the last election with (John) Kerry and (George W.) Bush
fighting over the Iraq war and yet Bush won, and now it seems like
it’s almost impossible to win supporting the war. I think that makes
a major statement as to how public perception has changed in the last
four years."

Tankian’s solo debut, on the other hand, isn’t much of a change from
his previous work. Elect the Dead could be another balletic,
ballistic System of a Down album — with the addition of piano and
strings. As usual, his vocals run the gamut — from Kermit the Frog
to operatic — and his lyrics are as absurdist as they are grim. He
refers to honking antelopes and uses "la la la la" phrases like a
five-year-old taunting his enemies.

Humour, Tankian believes, is sometimes more effective than heady talk
about democratic reforms.

"Originally, I had very serious lyrics and they were great, powerful
and the music was powerful and vaudevillian, but they weren’t working
with each other," he says of Lie Lie Lie.

"I had a hard time putting my finger on it — I liked the lyrics, and
I loved the music — but why wasn’t it working out? Suddenly, I
realized that I was barking up the wrong tree and that the music is
so fun-lovin’ and comedic and that the lyrics were too serious. So I
literally ripped up the lyrics and improvised them."

His fun-loving spirit is also on display in an electronic press kit
filmed to promote Elect the Dead. In the deadpan video, posted on
YouTube, Tankian plays a variety of cliches in the music industry —
including the geeky journalist, the money-obsessed label executive,
and the disinterested producer, who sends texts to his friends while
the hairbag engineer does all the work in the studio.

Which begs the question: What’s Tankian like as the founder and owner
of his own label, Serjical Strike Records? (One of his prog-rock
signings, Fair to Midland, is his opening act.)

"I think I’m generally really good and open until things go bad and
then I bring down the whip and all hell breaks loose. It takes a lot
to get me going, but when I do, I get going. I change things. Change
is good."

[email protected]

GE T TANKED: Listen to songs from Serj Tankian’s solo CD, Elect the
Dead.

ews/culture/story.html?id=4e5c86dd-d16b-4ad6-a814- cd50a70184ef&k=42944

IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF TOLERANCE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on March 15, 2008

`What we really need is a political dialogue, exclusively in an
atmosphere of tolerance. The authorities must analyze their failings,
which led the disapproved part of our people to the Square. They must
analyze and clarify, why did they link the solution of their problems
with the participation in the demonstrations headed by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, whereas many of them didn’t even share his principles
and ideologies.’ Samvel Nikoyan believes.